


warm on a cold night

by vicbartons



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Fluff, Loads of it, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-18 15:45:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13103400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vicbartons/pseuds/vicbartons
Summary: robert isn´t the only one in their relationship who is good at romantic gestures, thanks very much.





	warm on a cold night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dinglesugdendinglesugden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dinglesugdendinglesugden/gifts).



> this was written as part of this year´s [robron secret santa](http://robronsecretsanta.tumblr.com/)
> 
> title from "warm on a cold night" by honne

> _“And I can´t help but wonder how we ended up alright, and I love you like no other and this has never felt so right.” - warm on a cold night by HONNE_

 

“So is this when you finally tell me where the hell we’re going?”

It was late december, that week between the years when it feels like time isn’t passing at all and far too quickly all at once, when the excitement of Christmas hasn´t properly worn off yet, but everyone is already ramping up for the craziness of New Year´s Eve anyway, and Aaron and Robert were driving down a country road in the Dales that Robert couldn’t quite place. Now at 5pm it was already pitch dark out, the street only illuminated by the fairy lights in people’s front yards that they passed every now and again and the cone of light in front of them, created by the headlamp of Aaron´s car. Snow was falling slowly and in thick flakes, a light fog lying over the fields around them. Even with the heating in the car on, the cold was starting to creep through the soles of Robert´s leather boots, making him shiver. It was the perfect weather to be cuddled up on the couch under a warm blanket with your husband, a cup of tea in one hand and a good book in the other. So Robert really didn’t understand why they were finding themselves in the car, decked out in their winter clothes, instead of in the warm, cozy comfort of the Mill.

“Quit being so impatient, you’re not four,” Aaron muttered, trying his best to sound annoyed, but he couldn’t stop a small grin from tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Petulantly, Robert buried his nose deep in his scarf and grumbled. “You know I hate surprises.”

“Well so do I, but I still ended up marrying you without a proper warning, didn’t I? Seems to me like you owe me one,” Aaron argued, a smug smile forming on his face that could almost rival his husband´s trademark one.

“Guess I do, huh.”

The memory of that afternoon over five years back now always made a warm, homely feeling settle in Robert´s stomach that left no room for arguments. As badly as they had messed things up for a good while afterwards, neither one of them ever regretted the vows they´d made to each other in Cain´s garage that day. Breaking them had been part of the journey that had brought them where they were now after all, and an important one at that.

They drove a little while longer, Aaron continuously giving Robert the side eye as his leg kept jiggling from some mix of nervousness and excitement, before Aaron took a left turn straight into the forest. Muddy snow was thrown against the windows as Aaron took the sharp corner with a little too much speed and the car started to shake as they drove over the bumpy soil. “If this were our first date, I’d be worried about you being an axe murderer right about now,” Robert said lightheartedly. His nose was pretty much pressed against the window now in his attempt to scour their surroundings for any hints as to what his husband had planned for the evening. “I think I read somewhere that you´re far more likely to be murdered by your spouse than some random stranger you’re meeting for the first time,” Aaron deadpanned, his eyes never leaving the narrow pathway.

Robert turned his head at that, unable to hold in a huffed laugh. “Good to know, I s´pose.”  

Aaron looked over at him and grinned. As his right hand found Robert´s knee he let his finger´s softly draw small circles there in a gesture of reassurance, before giving it a tight squeeze to stop his husband from fidgeting, “innit?”

The moment was broken when Robert was distracted by a sliver of light shining somewhere in the midst of the black of the trees, only a few hundred meters out. He turned his head in wonder, trying to make out what he was looking at. “Is that it?” he asked.

“Huh?” Aaron played dumb. His eyes were once again focused on the narrow, snow-covered path to make sure they weren’t going to end up dead in a ditch somewhere, before his plan had even had a chance to come to fruition.

Robert pointed into the woods. “The lights over there,” he specified, his voice now so much like that of a small child in the early morning of Christmas Day, full of awe and excitement,”that where we’re going?”

“Might be.”

His suspicions were proven right when Aaron took a left at the next possible junction, leading them further into the forest, but more importantly, closer to the lights. The closer they got, the less Robert could believe what he was seeing. There, between the trees out in the middle of nowhere, was a small ice rink no more than 10 meters wide, surrounded by a wooden picket fence with a tiny shack working as a pay booth up front facing them as they parked. What made the whole set-up look even more magical was the lighting though. Meters and meters of fairy lights were strung along the fence, wrapped around the cross braces, immersing the entire rink in a soft, yellow glow as the lights reflected off the ice.

“Out with you then.” Aaron gave his husband´s shoulder a small bump with his fist, before he opened up the door and got out. Robert wasn’t even sure for how long he’d just been staring.

“Right,” Robert muttered, putting his hat and his gloves back on as he got out as well.

Aaron was standing at the back of the car, the lid wide open in front of him, pulling his bobble hat down over his ears. Robert joined him there and watched as his husband pulled two bottles of beer, a thermos that Robert could only assume was filled with tea and a tupperware box from the backpack sitting in the boot .

“Did you bake?” Robert asked incredulously, noticing that the content of the see-through box looked a whole lot like christmas biscuits.

“Nah,” Aaron shook his head, “Vic did. I wanted them to be eatable, ya know.” He sat down on the edge of the boot then, his legs dangling a little above the ground, poured both of them a cup of tea, the travel mugs steaming from the heat, and opened up the tupperware. He stretched out his arm and held the box full of what were unmistakably some of Victoria´s famous christmas biscuits, the ones she made after their grandma’s old recipes, under Robert´s nose, offering him one.

Robert took out a chocolate-dipped gingersnap, still unable to wrap his mind around what was in front of him.  “How did you-”, he started, taking a bite of the biscuit, “What´s-”, he tried again, seemingly unable to find the right words.

There was a shy smile on Aaron´s face as he answered. “Remember when you told me about how your mum would take you, Andy and Vic out to skate on the lake in the winter?” he asked. Robert only nodded, his mouth almost as full as his heart at Aaron’s question. He and his siblings had treasured those days out, Victoria twirling on the ice for hours and hours with her hand in her mother´s, while Andy and Robert had kicked a makeshift hockey puck, made from one of their dad´s empty tobacco cans, between the two of them with sticks. “Thought you might fancy another go after all this time,” Aaron explained, nodding towards the two pairs of skates leaning against the inside of the boot right behind him.

Robert sat down next to his husband, grabbed the warm cup of tea with one hand while the other one reached out for Aaron´s and held on closely once their gloved fingers intertwined. “Are we even allowed out here?” he asked between two sips of tea.

“The guy who owns it owed me a favour,” Aaron told him, smiling, “didn’t really like the idea of having a crowd around, seeing as I’ve never actually done this.”

“A favour?”

“Nothing criminal, mind,” Aaron explained, Robert only smirking at him (like he would ever mind), “he owns a farm a short way away from here and I got rid of a bunch of scrap for him a while back. Paid him a little more than its worth, cause he was a bit hard-done by,” at that his eyes grew sad, “talking about not having the cash to get his kid a birthday pressie.”

“Course you did.” That was just like Aaron, all kind and big-hearted, so much unlike Robert. It was one of the things Robert loved most about him, the fact that even after all the hurt and pain and injustice that Aaron had suffered, he´d never turned cruel, but instead just did whatever he could every single day to make sure others wouldn´t ever have to feel the same way.

Robert´s thumb rubbed over Aaron´s ring finger then, where he could feel their wedding ring through the soft material of his husband´s gloves. “I didn’t miss an anniversary, did I?” he wondered.

“You know you didn’t.”

Aaron was fairly certain that Robert had even the tiniest milestones of their relationship marked in the black, leather-bound planner he carried around wherever he went. There was no other way his husband was able to keep track of all the dates he deemed relevant enough to warrant celebration on a yearly basis the way he did, never letting one of those days pass without taking Aaron out to one of his favourite pubs, on a trip out of town, or at the very least surprising him with a card and a night in for just the two of them. He´d never forgotten a single one of them in the eight years that they’d known each other now (even though he hadn’t always been in a position to actually celebrate them with Aaron), not even the ones so small that Aaron needed a bit of a reminder as to what their significance was.

(Christ Robert, second, third and fourth first kisses really shouldn’t count, considering the number of times they´d broken up and made up again.)

“So what is it then?”

“Can’t your husband just do something nice for you?” Aaron shrugged as he let go of his husband´s hand and grabbed a pair of skates, busying himself with unlacing them.

Robert only gave him a look. “Your idea of nice is a cold pint and a film.”

It was.

And Robert loved it like that. As much as he himself enjoyed coming up with lavish romantic gestures to show Aaron the depths of his feelings, there was something quite beautiful about his husband´s more subdued take on the whole romance thing. Aaron´s love for Robert wasn´t big or showy, but it was always clearly visible, at least to the trained eye. It was visible in the way Aaron always had a cup of tea waiting for Robert when he stumbled out of the shower in the morning, with just the right mix of sugar and milk, or in the way he ran his hands through Robert´s hair, massaging that spot above his right ear in just the way that helped his husband relax while Robert was stewing over Home James´ invoices at their kitchen table late at night. There was something incredible about how just one small touch or gesture from Aaron had the power to make Robert feel more settled, loved and at home than the expensive Rolex that Chrissie had gifted him for his 25th birthday or the fancy holidays she´d taken him on ever had.

“Wow, right, blame a bloke for trying,” was the retort he got as Aaron raised his eyebrow at him, but it didn´t carry any real bite.

Persistent as ever though, Robert couldn’t let it go. “No, it’s brilliant, just-”

“You were up two to one.” Aaron conceded with a heavy sigh.

“What?”

The confused, wide-eyed look on Robert´s face elicited a lopsided smile on Aaron´s. “The year´s almost over and you were one big romantic gesture up on me.”

“You’re counting?” Robert´s brows furrowed in worry at his husband’s admission. “You do realize it’s not a competition, right? I never expect you to-”

And he did.

Aaron knew that Robert was being truthful. No matter how many times throughout their relationship Aaron had felt like his gifts were lacking in comparison to Robert´s, or how many times he had berated himself for his inability to put his feelings into words in the way that came so naturally to his husband, there had never been a single moment in which Robert had made him feel like he wasn’t doing enough, or like he didn’t trust the depth of Aaron´s feelings for him.

“I know you don’t, but I wanted to,” Aaron told him. Because as nice as it was to know that Robert didn’t need him to change, that knowledge didn’t stop Aaron from at times envying the ease with which his husband navigated the world of big, hollywood-worthy romantic gestures and it certainly didn’t stop him from wanting him to experience that same tingly, stupidly-in-love feeling that he himself felt in his bones whenever Robert surprised him.

“I love you more than I know what do with most days, figured I should at least try every now and again. To show you, I mean. Cause you do. All the time.” And the way Robert´s eyes lit up in that very moment and his cheeks glowed red not only from the cold as he bit his bottom lip was what made trying so damn worth it for Aaron.

Though Aaron Dingle was still Aaron Dingle, no matter how much his husband of five years managed to make him feel like a lovesick teenager, which meant he had to follow his moment of soppiness up with a dig at Robert, only to balance things out.

So he did.

“That and I can’t let  your head get too big, thinking of yourself as some big shot romantic hero or whatnot, can I now?”

Part of Robert wanted to pick up on the whole “romantic hero” thing, because it made him sound like some low budget Hugh Grant, which really wasn’t what he was going for whenever he tried to put his feelings for Aaron into actions, but that wasn’t important right now.

“You don’t need to show me, Aaron, I know.” And Robert truly did. The only thing in his life that he was more sure of than Aaron´s love for him was how much he loved Aaron right back.

“Course you do,” Aaron stood up and grinned at his husband, "still, it can’t hurt, can it?” And that was as much as he was going to say on the topic. “Now stop overthinking it and get those skates on.”

They both put on their skates in silence, before they stumbled towards the rink on their blades and carefully made their way onto the ice.

“If you let me fall on my arse, I’m gonna divorce you before the year´s over,” Aaron grumbled as he gripped the fence tightly with both of his hands, desperately trying to find some balance on the ice. Robert on the other hand seemed right in his element, taking a few long strides across the rink right away before he turned back around to face Aaron.

He skated up behind him and put his hands around his waist, pulling himself closer until his chest was pressed against Aaron´s back and he could rest his chin in the crook of his husband´s neck. “Can’t take that risk,” Robert whispered lowly, pressing a kiss against the sensitive spot right under Aaron´s left ear.

“You better not,” Aaron answered softly and turned his head a little so he had enough room to steal a quick kiss from Robert.

“Trust me?”

There was barely any room between the pair´s lips as Robert spoke and his breath puffed small clouds into the freezing winter air. When Aaron nodded in response, their cold noses brushed against each other, “course I do.”

Robert took a step back then, giving Aaron some room to move before he held out his hands for him to hold. Aaron turned around shakily, his back still resting against the fence. Slowly, he loosened his death grip on the cross braces of the fence and stretched his arms out towards Robert, still too unsure on the ice to trust himself with actually making his way over to his husband, even though there was less than a meter between the two of them. So it was Robert who moved closer again, with his hands outstretched, and the moment their fingertips touched, Aaron pulled him in and held onto his arms tightly.

“Nice and slow, okay? Just one foot after the other,” Robert advised, before he started to move, skating backwards like it was nobody’s business.

“Right.”

For the first few meters, Aaron just let himself be dragged across the slippery ground by his husband, far too focused on keeping his feet steady and balancing his own weight on the narrow blades to worry about anything else. But then, spurred on by the encouraging smile on Robert´s face, he started to move his legs. Nothing close to the smooth, long motions Robert was making on the ice, but his feet started to move one after the other nonetheless, until somehow, the two of them were slowly gliding in unison, face to face.

Left. Right. Left. Right.

“See, you’re already getting it,” Robert grinned and Aaron couldn´t help but match his expression.

“Got a good teacher, I s´pose.”

“Good enough to let me turn around, you think?”

Before Aaron knew what was happening, Robert had loosened his grip on his arms and pulled away, taking Aaron´s left hand into his left and sliding next to him where he wrapped his free hand around his husband´s waist, pulling him into his side.

The shuffling around however caused Aaron to lose his balance and before he had a chance to figure out a way to stop it, his foot slipped and gravity was starting to work its magic on him, pulling him towards the cold, hard ground.

Just in time before his arse hit the ice, Robert caught him, both his arms resting under Aaron´s armpits.

“That´s a no then,” he laughed while pulling him back up, before he made his way back in front of Aaron, who was breathing heavily. “Not funny,” he muttered, but it was hard for Robert to take his anger seriously when his hands were making their way under Robert´s sweater. Tentative, gloved fingers holding onto his waist, pulling him in and closing the space left between them. “Kind of funny,” Robert grinned, his forehead resting against Aaron´s.

Then the look in his eyes turned serious as he let his hands slide into the back pockets of Aaron´s jeans, “I´d never let you fall,” he reassured and Aaron could feel his warm breath hit his face as he spoke.

Finally, Aaron closed the space between them, pressing their lips together in a soft kiss.

What was only supposed to be a quick peck, considering how unsteady Aaron was on his feet in the middle of the rink, turned into more as Robert lay his head to the side a little, the ice-cold tip of his nose resting against Aaron´s warm cheek. Aaron leaned into Robert´s touch, getting lost in the warmth of Robert´s body under his fingertips. He let his mouth fall slightly open, an invitation that Robert took immediately, the two of them easily moving together, the way they had hundreds of times before as the tip of Robert´s tongue gently brushed over Aaron´s bottom lip before pushing into his open mouth. Robert´s hands found their way to Aaron´s face, the way they always did, pulling him impossibly closer, their tongues playing with each other until a small moan escaped Robert´s lips, causing Aaron to smile.

He pulled away just an inch, still lingering, to give them both a chance to catch their breath before he responded. “I know you wouldn’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr: [@vicbartons](https://vicbartons.tumblr.com/)


End file.
